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My Man Jeeves

A new Jeeves audiobook is cause for celebration, especially when the stories are not available in print. This hilarious installment of the inimitable manservant Jeeves and his twit of an employer, Bertie Wooster, includes the earliest stories written by the master of the pen, prank, and pun. The stories are woven together with original material performed by Martin Jarvis.

Joy in the Morning

Trapped in rural Steeple Bumpleigh, a man less stalwart than Bertie Wooster would probably give way at the knees, for among those present are Florence Craye, to whom Bertie had once been engaged; her new fiancé, "Stilton" Cheesewright, who sees Bertie as a snake in the grass; and that biggest blot on the landscape, Edwin the Boy Scout, who is busy doing acts of kindness out of sheer malevolence.

Something Fresh

As Wodehouse himself once noted, "Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice." On this particular occasion, there are two imposters, both intent on a dangerous enterprise. Lord Emsworth's secretary, the Efficient Baxter, is on the alert and determined to discover what is afoot - despite the distractions caused by the Honorable Freddie Threepwood's hapless affair of the heart.

Much Obliged, Jeeves: The Jeeves and Wooster Series

Everyone - even Augustus the cat - has cause to be obliged to Jeeves when he manages to retrieve the infamous Book, the book kept under lock and key at the Junior Ganymede Club and which lays bare the private lives of three-quarters of the upper classes - and which could prove to be political dynamite at the Market Snodsbury by-election! It once again falls to Bertie Wooster's manservant to save the day.

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Dramatised)

Michael Hordern stars as Jeeves, with Richard Briers as Bertie, in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. It's the stuff of nightmares for Bertie as he is hauled back to Totleigh Towers and the whole loony crew of Madeline, Gussie, Roderick Spode, Stiffy Byng, and the dog Bartholomew.

Uncle Dynamite

A chance meeting on a train brought together Lord Ickenham and Bill Oakshott, although being told that the love of his life, Hermione, was engaged to none other than Pongo, Lord Ickenham's nephew, did not make Bill feel like he'd been struck behind the ear. And what with the usual amount of stirring goings-on at Ashendon Manor that include biffings and black eyes and duckings in duck ponds, is there any chance that it will ever work out for poor Bill?

Young Men in Spats

From the author, whom the Times called "a comic genius" and "an old master of farce", are 11 further stories featuring such eccentric characters as Freddie Widgeon, Cyril (Barmy) Fotheringay Phipps, Percy Wimbolt, and Pongo. Young Men in Spats includes the following stories: "Fate", "Tried in the Furnace", "Trouble Down at Tudsleigh", "The Amazing Hat Mystery", "Good-bye to All Cats", "The Luck of the Stiffhams", "Noblesse Oblige", "Uncle Fred Flits By", "Archibald and the Masses", and more.

Cocktail Time: The Uncle Fred Series, Book 3

If Lord Ickenham had not succumbed to the temptation to dislodge the hat of Beefy Bastable, the irascible QC, with a well-aimed Brazil nut, the latter's famous legal mind might never have been stimulated to literature. But the incident provoked Beefy to write his exposé of the younger generation, a novel so shocking that it caused endless repercussions for its hapless author, and sparked off a whole series of outrageous misunderstandings that it would take the inventive talents of Lord Ickenham himself to resolve.

A Pelican at Blandings

Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, sank back in his chair looking like the good old man in a Victorian melodrama whose mortgage the villain had just foreclosed. Lord Emsworth needed Galahad. There are tricky corners to be rounded, and assorted godsons, impostors, and pretty girls to be paired off. Fortunately, many years’ membership of the Pelican Club means the Hon. Galahad Threepwood is able to keep cool, stiffen his upper lip, and always think a shade quicker than the next man.

Psmith in the City

Psmith and his friend Mike are sent by their fathers to work in the City. But work is the last thing on Psmith's mind; surely there are more interesting things to do with the day than spend it in a bank? Unfortunately the natives aren't conducive to his socialising within work hours, but all's fair in love and work as the monocled Old Etonian, with a little grudging help from Mike, begins to rope in allies in order to reform the bank manager and make him A Decent Member of Society.

The P.G. Wodehouse Collection

This title includes not only the entire audiobook of Right Ho, Jeeves, but also all of the P.G. Wodehouse titles in the current Classic Tales library. It also includes a Jeeves short story only available in the collection: "Extricating Young Gussie". The complete running time is over 15 hours. All titles have been remastered, and have never sounded better!

Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets

Newly married to novelist Rosie M. Banks, Bingo bucks the current trend by being extremely happy, although he does tend to lose his shirt on various horses. This collection of wonderfully funny stories features a cast of outrageous characters.

Big Money

Most of the big money belongs to Torquil Paterson Frisby, the dyspeptic American millionaire--but that doesn't stop him wanting more out of it. His niece, the beautiful Ann Moon, is engaged to "Biscuit", Lord Biskerton, who doesn't have very much of the stuff and so he has to escape to Valley Fields to hide from his creditors. Meanwhile, his old school friend Berry Conway, who is working for Frisby, himself falls for Ann--just as Biscuit falls for her friend Kitchie Valentine. Life in the world of Wodehouse can sometimes become a little complicated.

Psmith Journalist

Meet Psmith, with a silent 'P' as in psychic. A gallant, charming individual, Psmith has a gift for getting into awful scrapes, and when he takes over a gentile journal known as Cosy Moments with the aid of Billy Windsor, its sub-editor, he turns it into a radical publication...with alarming and hilarious results.

Service with a Smile: The Uncle Fred Series, Book 4

The description of his ancestral seat as an earthly paradise would, at present, have struck its proprietor as ironical, full as it was with unwanted and troublesome inhabitants. What Lord Emsworth needed above all was a rugged ally at his side to remove from Blandings its superfluous guests, leaving him in peace to tend his beloved pig, Empress of Blandings. However, when Lord Ickenham is on a sweetness-and-light-spreading expedition, there's always apt to be trouble.

Galahad at Blandings

Galahad can't abide broken hearts. So when Sam Bagshott and Sandy, Lord Emsworth's current secretary, have a falling-out over a bet, Galahad determines to reunite the warring couple. Sam stands to win a sackful if Tipton Plimsoll marries Veronica Wedge, Lord Emsworth's niece, but there's a rumor that Tipton is deep in the financial soup. Veronica's fearsome mother immediately stops all nuptials. To add to the mayhem, the Empress, Lord Emsworth's beloved prize porker, is discovered drunk.

A Damsel in Distress

Strange things are happening at Belpher Castle. For starters, the Earl's sister is intent on pairing off her stepson, Reggie, and niece, Lady Patricia (known as Maud). Maud, however, is in hot pursuit of Geoffrey Raymond, and she is also being pursued by the unacceptable composer, George Bevan.

The Inimitable Jeeves (Unabridged)

The first volume of Wodehouse's brilliant complete and unabridged short stories. Originally a semi-novel, this version contains self-contained stories which are nonetheless linked, often by Bingo Little, an endearingly hopeless chap and a serial romancer.

Hot Water

The house party at Chateau Blissac, Brittany, features a rather odd array of guests this year. Mr. J. Wellington Gedge is hoping for some peace and quiet while his wife takes herself off for a while. She, however, has invited numerous visitors to the chateau, to whom he will have to play reluctant host. Senator Opal and his daughter are expected, and so is the chateau's handsome owner, Vicomte de Blissac.

Laughing Gas

This stylish, charming, and delightfully witty comedy showcases all the reasons why P.G. Wodehouse is hailed as one of the most sharp-witted writers of the 20th century. It begins when a proper British earl falls asleep in a dentist’s chair - and wakes up in the body of America’s favorite child star.

Money for Nothing

The peaceful slumber of the Worcester village of Rudge-in-the-Vale is about to be rudely disrupted. First there’s a bitter feud between peppery Colonel Wyvern and the Squire of Rudge Hall, rich but miserly Lester Carmody. Second, that arch-villain Chimp Twist has opened a health farm, and he and Soapy and Dolly Molloy are planning a fake burglary so Lester can diddle his insurance company. After the knockout drops are served, things get a little complicated.

Piccadilly Jim

It takes a lot of effort for Jimmy Crocker to become Piccadilly Jim – nights on the town roistering, headlines in the gossip columns, a string of broken hearts and breaches of promise. Eventually he becomes rather good at it and manages to go to pieces with his eyes open. But no sooner has Jimmy cut a wild swathe through fashionable London than his terrifying Aunt Nesta decides he must mend his ways. He then falls in love with the girl he has hurt most of all, and after that things get complicated. In a dizzying plot, impersonations pile on impersonations....

The Luck of the Bodkins

Monty Bodkin loves Gertrude, who thinks he likes Lotus Blossom, a starlet who definitely adores Ambrose, who thinks that she has a thing for his brother, Reggie, who is struck by Mabel Spence, sister-in-law of Ikey Llewellyn (movie mogul, Ambrose’s prospective employer and reluctant smuggler), but hasn’t the means to marry her. With well-meaning but unhelpful ship’s steward Albert Peasemarch and a toy mouse thrown in for good measure, it will take the luck of the Bodkins to sort it all out.

Summer Moonshine

The hideous Walsingford Hall is home to an odd assortment of coves…The vile premises belong to Sir Buckstone, who is in a little financial difficulty. So for a little monetary help he puts a roof over the heads of people like (among others) Tubby Vanringham, the adoring slave of cold-hearted Miss Whittaker. His brother Joe has fallen head over heels for Sir Buck’s daughter, Jane. She, however, only has eyes for Adrian Peake, who has already formed a liaison with the terrifying - but superbly wealthy - Princess Dwornitzchek. Is there no end to the confusion?

Publisher's Summary

On doctor's orders, Bertie Wooster retires to sample the bucolic delights of Maiden Eggesford. But his idyll is rudely shattered by Aunt Dahlia who wants him to nobble a racehorse. Similar blots on Bertie's horizon come in the shape of Major Plank, the African explorer, Vanessa Cook, proud beauty and 'moulder of men', and Orlo Porter, who seems to have nothing else to do but to think of sundering Bertie's head from his body.

I enjoy P.G. Wodehouse and Wooster and Jeeves for a light humorous listen. Some narrators are not suited to these characters. But Jonathan Cecil is very good. I highly recommend his version of these books.

PG Wodehouse and Jonathan Cecil score another hit. Bertie Wooster once again gets himself tangled in a ghastly mess, this time involving a cat-loving horse and and aunt who, not being a gentleman, can't tell the difference between right and wrong (according to Hoyle). My face hurt from grinning so much.

With this audiobook, I've gone through all the Jeeves and Wooster stories - at least all the ones that are available from Audible. A number of gifted narrators have contributed to this collection: besides Cecil, who ranks as my favorite, there have been performances by Martin Jarvis, Ian Carmichael, and Dinsdale Landen. Smiles, chuckles, and congratulations all around. I can't wait to start all over again.

Where does Aunts Aren't Gentlemen rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Everything I've read by Wodhouse is superior comic fiction. Aunts ranks with the others. Excellence is the mean.

What other book might you compare Aunts Aren't Gentlemen to and why?

At opposite extremes of genre, 'On The Road' by Kerouac is comparable for richness of language and simile

What about Jonathan Cecil’s performance did you like?

Cecil is one of the master performers in a golden age of naration. The ability to jump about among characters of different sexes, ages, ethnicities and backgrounds at a speed near that of silent reading is astounding.

If you could take any character from Aunts Aren't Gentlemen out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Bertie, because he could be bullied into picking up the tab.

Any additional comments?

American narrators seem to be a sort of second string who couldn't make it on television and settled for second best. British narrators appear to be specialists who love their art. If I am wrong then show me an American who can compete with Mr. Cecil, Miss May or Mr. Davidson. I am a patriotic American writing without prejudice.

I got the book a couple of years ago during a Jeeves-and-Wooster phase, which ended before I'd gotten around to listening to this one. Needing a smaller work to fill some time, I decided to polish off "Aunts" recently, finding it worked out well. The Jeeves canon stories build on each other, so this final one would work best for fans of the series; there's some of the old slapstick adventure, but it has the feel of a finale to it.

I love listening to P G Wodehouse's books. You really appreciate the stunning quality of his writing, and you can savour the daftness of his meticulously plotted stories. And they always cheer me up with their gentle humour.

Aunts aren't Gentlemen is I think one of the later Jeeves stories and if truth be told it doesn't quite reach the heights of the earlier works. But it's still pretty good.

Jonathan Cecil might have been born to narrate these books. He is superb and brings P G Wodehouse's fantastic invention to life. The recording was made a long time ago so sound quality is not the best but you get used to it quickly.

Treat yourself to 4-5 hours of fun and escape!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Janejane_jane

6/11/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Pg Wodehouse perfection"

Absolutely fantastic. A masterpiece. The tales of Bertie and Jeeves are wonderful. Bertie teaches us that it is enough to be kind. I have every Jeeves and Wooster narrated by Jonathan Cecil. He reads these perfect stories perfectly and this combination (in my mind) makes the world better. Listen to them all without delay!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Ralphesq

1/14/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Wonderful Wodehouse"

A fitting final chapter to the Wodehouse/Wooster canon, sensational reading from Cecil the definitive narrator. Great characters, especially Plank and of course the cat who kept popping up when least expected.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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